Custody
by 616mcu
Summary: (HUMAN AU) Big families are hard to maintain, especially when they're fighting over who get's to raise you. All Steven know for sure: He's not going to come out of this unscathed.


**Another story that's been on the backburner for a while. Been wanting to do a human au for a while and this seemed like the right time for it.**

**Things to know:**

**White is the mother to Yellow(oldest), Blue, and Pink(youngest)**

**Steven is 7 years old**

**The Diamonds own a cooperation that pretty much runs the world**

**Exactly what the Diamonds do and what Pink(eventually Rose) did will be reaveled next chapter.**

**Pearl raised Steven as his legal guardian, Garnet and Amethyst eventually coming in to help.**

**I own nothing**

* * *

A cold and feisty wind blew into the lady's face as she patiently waited for it to be over. However, considering the circumstances, she silently prayed to who she was waiting for never came. Her jaw clenched as the fear grew.

This was a mistake, the was something that shouldn't have been allowed. In a perfect world, they wouldn't be here at all. In a perfect world, the one she loved the most would've stood by her side always. In a perfect world, life wouldn't have given her something so beautiful, so sweet, and so priceless, only to have it forced from her hand and cut off from her.

"Pearl, you, you're squeezing me." A young voice spoke frightfully. The skinny lady with hair that stood upward diagonally tilted her head down. The seven year old she watched over wasn't afraid. Timid for sure, but not afraid. Far braver than she was at his age.

"I'm, I'm sorry. I, I shouldn't be the one scared here." For all grief she felt, she couldn't help but feel selfish. It was Steven's life that was being affected. It was over his life that she and her friends fought for in courts for months. He was being taken away. His feelings should take priority here. "How do you feel about this?"

The boy fell silent for a moment. Pearl often had to remind herself of how young and fresh the boy's mind really was. Still a baby in eyes of many. Not ready to face the harsh mistress of life. Not prepared to take on the struggles most adults couldn't even handle. "A bit funny, like someone tickling me from the inside. Feels weird."

His innocence would always be a delight to her ears. She hoped the day never came where he would lose it. That child like view of the world was long ago expunged from her mind. "I can't express how proud I am of you." Steven glanced at her curiously. "You've been so strong with how everything been. You've cooperated without complaint and have taken the, news, rather calmly."

"But there shouldn't be anything to be afraid of, right? They're family." Pearl wish everyone could share that simple ignorance of youth over the situation. If they'd all acted a little more like Steven, maybe things wouldn't have been pushed this far.

"By blood, yes, they are your family." She grinded her teeth. They hardly acknowledge their sister's existence for years and all of the sudden they were building public support for there case. "Blood doesn't mean you old them anything Steven. We're still willing to fight for it."

"No, no more fighting. I know you guys don't sleep anymore. I've seen you up past midnight." He himself was just as tired of it all. He did his best to ignore it, but the weight of everything around him refused to be lifted off of his shoulders. "If all they want to do is get to know me better, than this seems like the best way to go."

"Steven, that's, that's not all they want to do." Pearl huffed as a long blue limo began driving up the street. "The Diamonds are not like our friends. They hold power. Whatever they want, they get. It's why your Mom spent all those years under a fake name."

"I know Mom had issues with them, but it seems like all this happened because she started lying so much." He took a brave step forward as the limo stop. The driver of the vehicle, a pale woman with short hair and a figure shape that eerily matched Pear's. "Maybe a little truth is what we need."

"I know lies have there cost, Steven. But so does the truth." The other lady opened the door for the young lad, patiently motioning him to enter the vehicle. The air inside felt cold, making Pearl all the more unnerved. "Steven, if they make you uncomfortable, don't hesitate to call."

"I will." The 7 year old nodded before entering the car. "I'll see you in a week." He gleefully waved before the door was shut on him. Pearl didn't even get the chance to wave back as the lady walked to the driver seat.

"That was rather rude you know." Pearl said to the lady.

"Sorry. Ms. Diamond specifically instructed me to distance you and your friends from him the moment he enters her care."

"The case is just beginning. Legally, I'm still his guardian."

"She also told me to tell you, 'Keep telling yourself that.'."

* * *

_The day before_

"What do you mean this is all you got?!" A panicked woman in a blue suit with a crescent moon-like hairstyle exclaimed at Pearl. Right next to her was a black lady with an afro and a shorter woman with light purple hair. All of them were crossing their arms.

"Rose wasn't one to share things with anyone, not even with herself." Pearl sighed. "She was always scared of someone figuring our her identity, so she made sure to leave as little a trail as possible."

"Yeah, because in court, that's going to make our case stronger!" The suit lady, Zircon Blue, said with a voice drenched in sarcasm. "Sorry, that's the inevitable fear of my career crashing finally hitting me."

"We're sorry we're making this soo hard for you, because it's an absolute picnic for us!" Amethyst returned her insincerity in full. "We only ever did what Rose wanted us to do, don't blame us for doing what we did."

"Amethyst, stand down." Garnet ordered, make Amethyst back away. "Zircon, we swear we're not trying to make this difficult for you. If you want to step down know, we'd understand perfectly."

"No, no. I just needed to get that off my chest. Not everyday you realize the woman you've helped for ten years was the little girl who sat around the office during my internship." She sighed as she went over the little paperwork there was. "No license, no official property ownership, not even an ID."

"Well yeah, kind of hard to get a fake one when everything around you is looking for your real ID." Amethyst snorted.

"Sorry if I'm talking in circles, but clearly you don't understand how severely damaging this is to your side." Zircon threw the paperwork on the ground. "The Diamonds are going to go after every advantage they have with this, and your story is littered with holes."

"Like what?" Amethyst asked.

"Well, lack of formal education, no valid licenses, lack of blood relatives in the household, known criminal past, property damages, several instances of public violence.."

"That's all on us, that has nothing to do with Steven." Pearl stepped in. "We, gotten into our fair share of trouble, that we're going to have to admit, but Steven has never once been involved in what we do. He's a perfectly normal child beloved by everyone in town."

"That's good, because that's really the only leg we're standing on by this point." Zircon sighed. "The Judge is going to look at the child's environment, and that'll require Steven to prove he's a healthy, fully functional kid with a penchant for spontaneous songs."

"Well, that'll be easy enough." Amethyst smirked. "What else can we do?"

"The only other thing we can do is prove the Diamond family isn't a suitable match for Steven's wellbeing, which with the little Rose Quartz left behind, isn't going to do much."

"There has to be something their we can use." Garnet pleaded. "Rose wouldn't have fled if they were as perfect as the world portrays them."

"I'm trying to dig deeper, but there's simply not enough time to build our case with the court date so close. The three of them want this matter closed up as quickly as possible, and unless they themselves want to stall the case, I'm sorry." All four of them fell defeated, though Pearl slowly raised her head in hesitation.

"Well, there might be an alternate solution." She bit her lip. "Ever since they found out, Steven has been constantly invited to their residence, which we've always sent back."

"Does Steven know about that?" Zircon groaned. This only seemed to get worse and worse.

"No, yes, well, not at first." Pearl sighed. "And I think they caught on to that. It might be the reason why they've been in such a hurry to go to court. But if they're sincere in wanting to see him, maybe.."

Amethyst caught on to what they were saying. "Oh no, no, you really want him to spend time with those, those monsters!?"

"I'm not happy about it either, but we need every advantage we can get!"

"We've spent most of his life protecting him, and now you just want to waltz him into the Lion's den?!"

"ENOUGH!" Garnet's voice boomed throughout the house and into the town, making everyone who heard it immediately duck for cover. "Are you certain the Diamonds would be willing to make a deal like that?"

"Everything they do is about business. This is just our way of speaking their language." Pearl sighed. "We don't have anything else."

Amethyst wanted to keep arguing. She wanted to keep talking and bickering until they had no choice but to come up with another solution. "Amethyst, choose your words carefully. Our battle isn't to shield Steven from the world. Our battle is to make sure he comes out unharmed, and leaving him in the middle of it isn't going to protect him." Garnet placed her hand on her shoulder.

She relented. "At least give him the choice to decide."

* * *

_Now_

Cold.

It was cold. Not the car, not Blue's demeanor, just the entire atmosphere of the entire situation, it was cold.

Steven comfortably settled himself in his seat, placing his hands on his lap, smiling at his aunt. To the lady's surprise, it was a smile full of genuine curiosity and care. She dealt with all kinds of people from all kinds of life. She and her sister needed to know how to read people if they were to survive the tough business world. You never knew when a kind gesture held was secretly holding a knife on the other side.

Perhaps she was expecting to see more of Pink in the little lad. The curly hair was kind of a give-away, as were the eyes and nose. But that was it. He was a bit, stocky, though she chucked that up to baby fat. If it wasn't for the stand out's she pointed out before, she be saying she was looking at a stranger.

No, that's exactly what she was looking at. A stranger. A naïve, cute, _innocent, _stranger. Innocent was definitely not a word Blue would associate with her youngest sister. Even as a baby, Pink was a darling little demon.

Have no doubt, she loved her little sister with everything that she had, but you couldn't exactly say she was an ideal child, far from it. Blue truly didn't know where it went wrong. She was a star ballet student, her social skills were far superior than any of her peers, always having a knack for gather large crowds and getting people to follow behind her.

But she was also sneaky, manipulative, and could be down right devious at times. Blue couldn't even begin to count all the times she let a broken curfew slide away or kept a closed mouth whenever she 'played' with an 'invited guest.'. To know that she let it get up to this point, that she could've stopped it before it went too far tore apart her heart.

She knew that their family wasn't exactly a perfect structure, a strict and controlling mother with three daughters of very contrasting personality, but that shouldn't have stopped her from being better. She should've been less of sister to pink, and more of a mother, to fill in where White faltered.

Ironic, if cruel, that life seemed to give her that chance in the form of Pink's son. "I, thank you for being so cooperative with us." She wasn't use to talking to children, or at least she's been out of practice since Pink. "I know that the situation might be much for you to understand.."

"You and your family are fighting my family over who gets to take care of me." Steven said while keeping the small smile on his face. "That is it, right?"

"Yes.." She didn't expect such a blunt response and fairly accurate response. "Sorry, I don't mean to talk down to you or anything, it's just so hard to find the right words.."

"Then just say what you need to. I don't need to be told anymore lies." Steven's face for the first time fell downward.

Once again, Blue was taken back. She could definitely see some of Pink's more demanding nature in the kid, though in this case it came from a less angry place, and more from a tired routine he's most likely been through a hundred times over. "Right, I'm sorry for assuming." The kid didn't look reassured. "You got our letters, yes?"

"I did. When my friends eventually let me see them." Friends. First he said they were his family, but now they were his friends. "Pearl told my dad about you, and he left it in their hands. It wasn't until Amethyst told me that I knew about it." All the more reason to get Steven to his real family as quickly as possible. "I think they're trying to keep this perfect image of my Mom for me, but I wish they didn't feel like they had to do it."

"Believe me, Pink was far from the perfect sister. She practically tore down the house just to get our attention, and it was over some stray cat she tried to take in. Said that there's no way it could make a bigger mess than she did."

The smile returned to Steven's face. "And she thought that would make things look better?"

"Considering we let her keep the cat, probably." A fond story to laugh over, yes, but rather said and pathetic in retrospect. "You, you never met her, correct."

"Yeah. I was born when she died. Don't know anything about her apart from what everyone else tells me." Steven looked off to the car window. "I keep hearing how she loved everyone, that she was this pretty little flower that helped everyone she came across. But no one's telling me about anything else because it seems like no one really knew anything else. No one talks about how she was really Pink Diamond, no one talks about the people she hurt to keep a secret. It's like people want me to like a picture or drawling, but I can't feel anything because I don't know what I'm looking at."

Blue had definitely not expected to see this when she was told she was going to meet Pink's son. When such a concept came to her head, she had imagined what he would be like. Happy. Playful. A little naïve, but upbeat and positive. But this boy was tired. He was sad, angry, frustrated by the circumstances around him, and it all seemed to be aimed at his own mother.

Knowing what she did now, she wanted to slap herself for not foreseeing this. This was the reason why they got so concerned about his wellbeing in the first place. Here he was, right in the middle of a problem his mother, her own sister, caused, and he felt the responsibility to own up to it. A 7 year old shouldn't have to bare such a burden, but here he was, resisting tears and following along with what's been given to him. This was a strong child indeed.

He was definitely a Diamond. "I'm probably one of the few people who could say I knew her, and even then it gets hard to talk about. For years, I couldn't even think about her name without breaking down. Yellow and White would try to get me on medication to 'calm my nerves.' Even tried slipping some in my food."

"That sound sneaky and very bad." Steven raised a little eyebrow.

"You don't even know the half of it. I can't say I approve of what Pink did, nor do I appreciate the circumstances she left you in, but I can understand the why of it." It was really hard to admit that last part. While there were parts of her life she could definitely live without, it was a life where she did find joy and happiness in despite the bleaker moments. Maybe she was too scared of risking it, maybe she was a fearful coward under the thumb of her mother, but it was the only life she knew. A part of herself deep inside though was glad to know Pink was able to find her own happiness, if only because her beautiful child was sitting across from her. "There are days where I question what the right choice could've been."

"Thank you for talking about her." Steven gave her the most appreciative look anyone's ever given her. "I'm glad there's somebody else that's just as confused as me."

"You can be as confused as you want, Steven. You're still young, and trust me, being decisive isn't as fun as it looks." For now, she needed Steven to have as little worry as possible.

He was family, and she would do whatever it takes to keep her family, all of her family together.

Nothing would get in her way.


End file.
